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Licensed Users or Licensed Machines? | 99 comments (99 topical) | Post A Comment
Define "machine"[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by Fushigi on Tue Jan 24, 2006 at 05:37:41 AM PDT

What consititutes a PC? There are dozens of parts.

Which parts or how many parts have to be replaced, removed, or added before a PC is no longer considered to be the same?

In eMachine's/MicroSoft's license, what hardware is explicitly identified as being the hardware that the license is tied to?

Keep in mind that the Windows OEM license simply ties the license to some piece of hardware that was purchased at the same time. It may be a motherboard, but it could also be a power splitter cable, a power supply, or a case screw. The latter items are not detectable by the OS yet are still valid in terms of satisfying the OEM hardware requirement. If the license applies to the machine as a whole, then just replacing the mouse or using a differen power cable would invalidate the license. Yet I can do that all day long and Windows won't care at all.

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See the Refurbished Text Below[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#23)
by Anonymous User on Tue Jan 24, 2006 at 06:18:11 PM PDT

Actually, eMachines could have provided an identical motherboard so that the license was free and clear. But if you don't buy the motherboard from them, and want to "upgrade" the OEM motherboard by buying elsewhere: guess what, that's not their business model.

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OEM license[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#37)
by Anonymous User on Wed Jan 25, 2006 at 05:45:52 AM PDT

Actually the Microsoft OEM license does state that it can only be sold with one of the following: a complete system, a motherboard, a processor, or a hard disk drive. Unless, of course, that has changed since I stopped building PC's. I don't know the details of the situation, but it sounds more to me like this may have been a mistake in customer service?

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Licensed Users or Licensed Machines? | 99 comments (99 topical) | Post A Comment
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